History

Defining the residential and commercial service industry for more than 85 years.

ServiceMaster was founded in 1929, as a moth-proofing company by Marion E. Wade, a former minor league baseball player. Wade, who operated his new business out of his home, had a strong personal faith and viewed individual employees and customers as worthy of dignity and respect.

The company was incorporated in 1947. Its offerings expanded to include carpet cleaning in 1952, establishing one of America's first franchise businesses. In 1962, the company took its expertise to the healthcare arena and was a pioneer in third-party outsourcing. In 1980, ServiceMaster entered the education market and expanded its range of commercial services.

In the 1980s, ServiceMaster built on its original franchise business to form a network of high-quality branch and franchise-based service companies – including Terminix and Merry Maids – and other service brands, including American Home Shield.

A group of equity sponsors led by Clayton, Dubilier and Rice, LLC (CD&R) acquired ServiceMaster in 2007 and took the company private. The company moved its headquarters to Memphis, Tenn. to better consolidate resources with its business units. Robert J. Gillette was appointed chief executive officer in June 2013, and the company began publicly trading (NYSE: SERV) in June 2014.

Today, ServiceMaster operates under many of the same tenets of Marion Wade’s original purpose: to deliver exceptional service and quality to customers.

Like our company’s founder, we believe in being:

Dependable

Accountable

Expert

Responsible

Respectful

Accessible

When we do these things well, we’re living up to the ServiceMaster legacy.